According to a pharmaceutical feeding apparatus of a related art, tablet feeders provided in multiple steps in the entire circumference thereof with rotors are installed in a tablet receiving case, and tablets are selectively fed from the tablet feeders and wrapped based on the prescription (see, FIG. 1 of Patent document 1 and FIG. 38 of the present invention), or the tablet feeders are arranged in the form of a tray to selectively feed the tablets based on the prescription (see, FIG. 6 of Patent document 2 and FIG. 36 of the present invention).
In the tablet feeder, a rotor is installed in a container receiving a plurality of tablets, and a plurality of recesses are formed along an entire lateral side of the rotor at a regular interval to receive the tablets. As the rotor rotates, the tablets provided in the container are received in the recesses such that the tablets may move in the rotating direction of the rotor. When the recesses face a discharge port, the tablets are discharged from the recesses one by one through the discharge port (see, patent document 3).
Meanwhile, one dose of half-size tablets may be prepared according to the prescription. In this case, the half-size tablets are previously set in the tablet feeder to allow the tablet feeder to feed the half-size tablets.
A tablet divider divides the tablets into half-size tablets by using a rotary cutter while the tables are moved downward with being pinched between a pair of belt conveyers, (see, FIG. 1 of patent document 4). In addition, the tablets being moved into a tube are blocked by a shutter and a cutter of a tablet divider divides the tablet into half-size tablets in such a manner that a lower half-size tablet is dropped down and an upper half-size tablet is kept on the cutter and then dropped down as the cutter moves to its initial position (see, FIG. 6 of patent document 5).
Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2003-63503.
Patent document 2: Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2008-162609.
Patent document 3: Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2005-59903.
Patent document 4: Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 1990-29257.
Patent document 5: Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 1999-226089.
Patent document 6: Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2005-272011.
Patent document 7: Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2007-75178.